Coating compositions are widely in use today which utilize a variety of cure mechanisms. Among these are anodic and cathodic electrodeposition coating compositions and methods wherein a film-forming composition is deposited on a substrate under the influence of an applied electric potential. "Electrodeposition" as used herein refers to electrophoretic deposition. "Electrocoat" as used herein refers to both coating compositions used in electrophoretic deposition processes and to coating films obtained from electrophoretic deposition processes.
During electrodeposition, an ionically-charged polymer having a relatively low molecular weight is deposited onto a conductive substrate by submerging the substrate in an electrocoat bath having dispersed therein the charged resin, and applying an electrical potential between the substrate and a pole of opposite charge, usually a stainless steel electrode. This produces a relatively soft coating of low molecular weight on the substrate. This coating is usually converted to a hard high molecular weight coating by curing or crosslinking of the resin, usually upon exposure to elevated temperatures. In cathodic electrocoat, the workpiece being coated serves as the cathode.
One curing mechanism utilizes a melamine formaldehyde polymer-curing agent in the electrodepositable coating composition to react with hydroxyl functional groups on the electrodeposited resin. This curing method provides good cure at relatively low temperatures (e.g., 132.degree. C.), but the crosslinked bonds contain undesirable ether linkages and the resulting coatings provide poor overall corrosion resistance.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,501,833 discloses aminoplast curable cationic coating compositions that contain an onium salt-group containing polymer and a specific aminoplast curing agent. However, the performance of the cured coating is believed to be less than that desired by current commercial conditions.
In order to address some of the problems with melamine-crosslinked electrocoats, many users employ polyisocyanate crosslinkers to react with hydroxyl functional groups on the electrodeposited resin. This curing method provides desirable urethane crosslink bonds, but it also entails several disadvantages. In order to prevent premature gelation of the electrodepositable coating composition, the highly reactive isocyanate groups on the curing agent must be blocked (e.g., with an oxime, lactam, or alcohol).
Blocked polyisocyanates,.however, require high temperatures (e.g., 176.degree. C. or more) to unblock and begin the curing reaction. The resulting electrocoats can also be susceptible to yellowing. Moreover, the volatile blocking agents released during cure can cause other deleterious effects on various coating properties, as well as increasing VOC. In addition, use of some the volatile blocking agents may give rise to environmental concerns. Finally, the volatile blocking agents account for significant and disadvantageous weight loss upon crosslinking.
In addition to the foregoing problems, prior art electrocoat compositions have sometimes lacked good flow and/or leveling. Ideally, an electrocoat coating composition will possess good flow and leveling at a desirable dip viscosity and solids. It is thus desirable to obtain an electrocoat coating composition which would is free of the foregoing problems but also exhibits good flow and leveling at a desirable dip viscosity and desirably high solids. It would also be advantageous to obtain such improvements with the add of a component which resulted in advantageous urethane linkages upon crosslinking, rather than undesirable ether linkages.
Pending U.S. Pat. No. 6,165,338 discloses cathodic electrocoat compositions having carbamate functional resins. Although such compositions provide advantages over the prior art, further improvements are desired.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,814,382, 5,114,015, and 5,158,808 describe the use of certain N-alkyl carbamate compounds as reactive diluents in coating compositions having OH-- functional curable polymer resins. These compounds, however, may require excessively-high catalyst or temperature levels in order to fully react into the crosslink matrix during cure of the film.
WO 87/00851 describes the use of certain reactive carbamate derivatives in an effort to minimize the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOC). U.S. Pat. No. 5,744,550 describes the use of primary carbamate additives. However, further reductions in VOC are desireable without loss of desirable performance properties such as etch resistance and the like.
There is thus a need in the art for electrodepositable coating compositions that can provide desirable urethane crosslink linkages, but avoid the problems that accompany the use of blocked polyisocyanate curing agents. In particular, it is desireable to provide a cathodic electrodeposition coating composition capable of providing urethane linkages at low bake temperatures of 121.degree. C. or less with decreased weight loss upon crosslinking, while being free of isocyanates and the volatile blocking agents used with isocyanates.